A cyclist locks up his bike outside of the Ferry Building along the Embarcadero on July 24, 2014 in San Francisco, CA. The SFMTA is starting the process of planning a type of separated bikeway for the 3-mile stretch from AT&T Park to Powell Street in order to help control crowds and reduce accidents between bicyclists and other automobiles and pedestrians.

A cyclist locks up his bike outside of the Ferry Building along the...

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Bicycles for rent line the facade of the Ferry Building on the Embarcadero on July 23, 2014 in San Francisco, CA. The SFMTA is starting the process of planning a type of separated bikeway for the 3-mile stretch from AT&T Park to Powell Street in order to help control crowds and reduce accidents between bicyclists and other automobiles and pedestrians.

A boy is framed by a cyclist on the sidewalk along the Embarcadero on July 24, 2014 in San Francisco, CA. The SFMTA is starting the process of planning a type of separated bikeway for the 3-mile stretch from AT&T Park to Powell Street in order to help control crowds and reduce accidents between bicyclists and other automobiles and pedestrians.

A pedicab driver looks for customers along the Embarcadero on July 24, 2014 in San Francisco, CA. The SFMTA is starting the process of planning a type of separated bikeway for the 3-mile stretch from AT&T Park to Powell Street in order to help control crowds and reduce accidents between bicyclists and other automobiles and pedestrians.

A bicyclist rides her bike next to the sidewalk along the Embarcadero on July 23, 2014 in San Francisco, CA. The SFMTA is starting the process of planning a type of separated bikeway for the 3-mile stretch from AT&T Park to Powell Street in order to help control crowds and reduce accidents between bicyclists and other automobiles and pedestrians.

A pedicab rides on the sidewalk along the Embarcadero on July 23, 2014 in San Francisco, CA. The SFMTA is starting the process of planning a type of separated bikeway for the 3-mile stretch from AT&T Park to Powell Street in order to help control crowds and reduce accidents between bicyclists and other automobiles and pedestrians.

A bicyclist rides his bike on the sidewalk along the Embarcadero on July 23, 2014 in San Francisco, CA. The SFMTA is starting the process of planning a type of separated bikeway for the 3-mile stretch from AT&T Park to Powell Street in order to help control crowds and reduce accidents between bicyclists and other automobiles and pedestrians.

A bicyclist rides his bike on the sidewalk along the Embarcadero on...

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A bicyclist rides his bike on the sidewalk along the Embarcadero on July 23, 2014 in San Francisco, CA. The SFMTA is starting the process of planning a type of separated bikeway for the 3-mile stretch from AT&T Park to Powell Street in order to help control crowds and reduce accidents between bicyclists and other automobiles and pedestrians.

A bicyclist rides his bike on the sidewalk along the Embarcadero on...

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A bicyclist rides his bike on the sidewalk along the Embarcadero on July 23, 2014 in San Francisco, CA. The SFMTA is starting the process of planning a type of separated bikeway for the 3-mile stretch from AT&T Park to Powell Street in order to help control crowds and reduce accidents between bicyclists and other automobiles and pedestrians.

Packed with pedestrians, sightseers, bicyclists, joggers, skaters, pedicabs, strollers and, of course, cars, the Embarcadero is both popular and hazardous.

And as city officials, residents and visitors turn more of their attention to the waterfront, transportation planners want to help the Embarcadero accommodate the growing crowds more safely by creating a physically separated bikeway or bikeways.

With that popularity, however, comes conflict. The Embarcadero has a wide sidewalk on the bay side - known alternately as the promenade and Herb Caen Way - and stretches have striped or green-painted bike lanes. But the crowds, and their activities, have become overwhelming.

On a recent sunny afternoon south of the Ferry Building, bicyclists wove in and out between joggers, a tour group listened to a guide and stared out at the Bay Bridge, and a fitness class did calisthenics. Meanwhile, traffic in the street was moving slowly and stacking up at every traffic signal.

Stretches of the Embarcadero are among the top injury spots in the city for pedestrians and bicyclists. Research for the city's WalkFirst initiative found that about a third of the 3-mile stretch of the Embarcadero between AT&T Park and Powell Street was among the 6 percent of city streets where 60 percent of pedestrian injuries occur, and 75 percent of the street was ranked as a high-injury corridor for bicyclists and pedestrians.

Roadway casualties

San Francisco Police Department data from 2006 through 2011 showed that 84 pedestrians or bike riders were injured on the Embarcadero, including two pedestrians who were killed and four pedestrians and two bicyclists who were seriously injured.

The MTA's plan for the Embarcadero has no details, and, for now, no funding or anticipated opening date. But planners are pressing ahead. The first of many scheduled community meetings was held Thursday to start the year-long planning process. By fall of 2015, the MTA expects to have a final design.

For now, the goal is to build a separated and protected bikeway as a way to give everyone a better-defined place to make their way along the Embarcadero. Separated bikeways, sometimes known as cycletracks, can be elevated or at street or sidewalk level, and can carry bicyclists in one or both directions. They can be separated from traffic by medians, planters, posts or bike parking.

Planners are considering four general ideas:

-- A two-way bikeway on the water side, either on the street or on the promenade.

-- Two one-way bikeways, curbside, on either side of the Embarcadero.

-- Two one-way bikeways, in the center of the roadway, on either side of the Muni Metro tracks.

-- A two-way bikeway in the center of the street, next to the Muni Metro tracks.

Because of the 3-mile length, the varying widths of the roadway and sidewalks, and differing curbside uses - delivery and drop-off zones, for instance - the project will be challenging, and the final design will probably mix different approaches, Golier said.

Need for bikeway

Michael Klett, executive director of the Bike Hut, a nonprofit that operates a bike rental, sales and repair business that focuses on training youth, gets a close-up view of the Embarcadero congestion from his location at Pier 40 near AT&T Park.

"There's obviously a need for an improvement," he said. "There should be a wide bike lane, more protected."

Klett favors a wider promenade with a bi-directional bikeway. Putting it in the median next to the Muni right-of-way wouldn't work well, he said, because some cyclists would probably use it while others, unfamiliar with the design, might stick to the sidewalk.

"It would be nice if people here had a European attitude" toward bicycling and sharing the streets, he said, "but they don't."

Lengthy process

The planning effort is being funded with a grant from the Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and the MTA is working with the Port of San Francisco as well as the city's Department of Public Works on the project. Once the design is chosen, the project will still need to undergo environmental review and detailed design work, which would take at least a couple of years.

The city will also need to find the money to build the bikeway, though some of it could come from the $500 million transportation bond measure on the November ballot.

While the project that would be constructed as a bikeway, the goal is to make the Embarcadero safer for everyone, Golier said.

"Everyone would have their dedicated place on the street," he said. "They'll be able to travel along the Embarcadero with much more comfort and confidence."